


Packing Is Better With A Friend

by hyggemeansfriendly



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Post season three, i don't know how to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23498290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyggemeansfriendly/pseuds/hyggemeansfriendly
Summary: Catalina seeks advice from Varian when she starts getting bullied at school.
Relationships: Red | Catalina & Varian (Disney)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 80





	Packing Is Better With A Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Catalina does have a crush on Varian in this story; however, this is by no means a ship fic. Varian does not have feelings for her, and the two are just friends.
> 
> Anyway, this is my first published work along with my first one about Tangled, so I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Word Count: 2326

Catalina sat outside the small mansion; she had been for the last ten minutes. She wasn’t sure why she’d gone there - well she knew why, but she didn’t know why she thought it was a good idea. Sure, she and Varian were friends, but they weren’t close enough for her to show up at his door uninvited and seeking comfort. Maybe she should leave-

Her thoughts were interrupted by the creaking of a door. She turned her head and repositioned herself to face Varian, who wore a look of surprise followed by confusion.

“Hi, Catalina. What, uh, what are you doing here?” She couldn’t help but giggle as his eyes widened at the quick realization that he might have come off as rude, “Not th-that I don’t want you here, or, uh, anything like that. I, I just meant, well-”

“Calm down,” she said as her giggles continued, “I get what you’re trying to say.”

Varian let out a slight chuckle which brought Catalina comfort. She never expected to become friends with the alchemist, nevertheless have feelings for him, but she found herself liking him more and more each time they talked.

Varian stood there awkwardly, his previous question on what Catalina needed still unanswered, “Sooo…”

Slight blush covered the twelve-year old’s cheeks as she rose to her feet. That’s embarrassing. 

“I heard you were moving to the castle because of your royal engineer duties, and I figured you might need some help packing up,” she lied. 

She could tell Varian hadn’t expected that response. Probably because she and Angry only ever went to see him when they needed something - a gift for Dad, homework help - but she could also tell he was thankful for the extra set of hands. 

“Really?” Varian grinned, “Th-thanks!” He opened the door to invite her in as he continued to speak, “I never realized how much equipment I had until I started packing! Not to mention how big some of my, my inventions are. They barely fit in-“

Varian continued to ramble as they walked toward his lab. Catalina, though it was hard to follow, found it endearing. Despite their drastically different interests, she couldn’t help but smile at how excited science made him.

When they entered the lab, she was shocked, to say the least. It was a wreck. Books were stacked all over the room, beakers and other types of equipment were strewn throughout various tables, machines were everywhere and boxes covered the entire room. Varian, however, didn’t seem to notice as he walked in as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

“Uh, Var?”

“Yeah?” He responded as he walked over to a pile of books. 

“This place looks like a dump.”

Varian stopped what he was doing and looked around with those big blue eyes. Were his eyes always so pretty? He then looked back at Catalina, he gave an awkward laugh and rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah, I guess it’s taken quite th-the beating with trying to move and all,” he shrugged, “It’s seen worse days.”

“It’s been worse than this?” She gestured at the room. As great as Varian was, he wasn’t the neatest person. Not to say Catalina was - far from it - but she wasn’t nearly as bad as Varian.

“Heh. Yeah,” there was a hint of sadness in his voice, but he quickly returned back to his usual, chipper self.

The two worked for about an hour. She helped him sort glassware (after he taught her which was which of course - beaker, flask, burette, etc.) while he labeled different colored viles. He laughed at her puns and other jokes, she scared him with his welding mask (he didn’t find that quite as funny as she did), he told her stories about his alchemical mishaps, and they laughed. The whole time they laughed. 

One of her favorite things about Varian was they always had something to talk about. There was never a dull moment (okay some of his rants about science were a little boring, but she didn’t mind). Catalina loved Angry more than anyone in the world, but it had always been just the two of them. She never made any other friends, and how could she? She was an orphaned thief on the run. Catalina loved hanging out with her sister, but she still longed for more friends. When Dad adopted them and they agreed to start going to school, she thought that maybe that could finally happen, but she was wrong. It turned out that kids were mean. Really, really mean. But Varian wasn’t like that. He never teased her in a mean or malicious way, he was always willing to help her and her sister, and he was just fun to be around.

Catalina suddenly felt herself wanting to tell him why she originally came, but she felt too guilty. It wasn’t the fact that she lied that made her stomach churn (she was sure Varian would understand and it wasn’t exactly her first time manipulating the truth), but the fact that he seemed so happy that she had come to help him. Telling him she was actually there to get help from him...it would be cruel. So, as usual, Catalina kept her mouth shut. After all, sometimes staying quiet was just for the best.

They continued to work for another twenty minutes when Varian sealed another box, “What time is it?”

Catalina looked at the clock on the top left corner of the wall near her, “Around three,” she said as she squinted. 

“Really?” Varian rubbed his eyes, a chuckle followed, “Guess time really does fly when you're having fun. Wanna take a lunch break?”

Lunch sounded great. She didn’t even realize how hungry she really was until the other brought it up. She grinned, “Sure!”  
___

Varian led Catalina to the kitchen. It wasn’t as big as his lab, but it was still relatively large. The plain colored walls and lack of furniture due to the move only made it look bigger. 

“Hmm, this room’s actually clean. I’m guessing you haven’t gone in here for a while.” 

“Whatever,” Varian playfully replied. When Varian first met Angry and Catalina he didn’t really know what to think of them. He didn’t dislike them, but he also had a hard time picturing them as his friends. Angry made fun of him, a lot (she still did), and Catalina, initially, hardly spoke at all. They were pretty different from him, but eventually, he got used to their sense of humor and they got used to his “dorkiness” as Angry put it. 

“Do you like, uh, like ham sandwiches?” 

Catalina nodded. She sat on the counter, her legs dangling. 

Varian finished making the sandwiches relatively quick. After all, he was kinda an expert at the art of sandwich-making. He handed Catalina her plate and then pulled over one of the dining room chairs toward the counter. They talked some more about Lance and Angry, a little bit about Rapunzel and Eugene. Even his dad came up. Varian was honestly really happy Catalina had dropped by. She made packing so much easier, and he had to admit, a lot more fun. 

“So how’s school going?” 

Catalina’s eyes immediately darted to the floor. 

Okay, wrong question. 

“It’s alright,” she said or rather whispered. Suddenly Catalina went from excitable and confident to the shy and hesitant girl she was when they’d first met. Varian frowned. That was... concerning. Was she still having trouble with her schoolwork? 

“Hey,” Varian said softly as he set his half-eaten sandwich on his plate, “Are you...are you okay?” 

Catalina was almost surprised by the question. It was as if she was trapped within her own thoughts and Varian’s voice brought her back down to reality, “Oh...umm, yeah….Actually no, not really.” 

Varian hated seeing his friends upset. It made him feel so powerless. Luckily, academics was something he could probably help with, “Is there anything I, I can do to help? I haven’t been to, uh, public school in a, a long time, so I don’t really know the c-curriculum, but if you give me a subject I’m sure I can-“ 

“That’s not what I meant,” Catalina’s voice was shaky which only worried Varian further. 

“Oh. Wha-what do you-“ 

“Kids can be really mean.”

Oh. 

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. 

She was being bullied. 

Varian had experienced his fair share of bullies growing up, but that was when he was really little. The older kids often teased him for his height, speech impediment, and a number of other things, but once he unenrolled from public school the teasing just kinda stopped? He didn’t unenroll because of the bullying (he would never compromise his education because of a few insecure jerks). He was simply ahead of his class and found that he learned more at home. He wasn’t entirely sure why his unenrollment stopped the bullying. He only guessed it was because he spent more time inside and didn’t see a lot of the other kids anymore. He was never invited to go play with them, and he didn’t want to. He was more than happy to stay at home and work on his experiments, even if it was a bit lonely at times. Eventually, people stopped being mean to him - well to his face anyway. The more into science he got, the more the town talked about him. Though, he couldn’t blame them. Accidentally blowing things up from time to time didn’t exactly earn him the best reputation, and it certainly didn’t help that he was the village leader’s son. 

“I-I’m s-sorry,” Varian rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn’t really sure what to say. ‘I get how you feel, but don’t worry if you isolate yourself from everyone the teasing will eventually stop.’ Yeaaah, no. Catalina was so excited to go to school, and he didn’t want to discourage her, “I know how you feel. People used to say bad things about me all the time, heck, they still do, but you, you can’t let that bring you down.”

“What if they aren’t just talking bad about you?”

“What do you mean?”

Catalina took a deep breath, “At first they just talked about me behind my back, and it was easier to ignore it then, but now...now they’re making fun of me to my face. And I never know what to do or what to say.”

Varian thought for a second, he wanted to choose his words wisely. “What does Angry th-think?” He had a hard time believing Angry would let people talk about her sister behind her back or not. The girls were fiercely protective of each other.

“She doesn’t know,” Catalina continued to avoid making eye contact, “I guess the kids in our class are scared of her or something which is probably why it only happens when I’m alone...” 

Varian could feel his anger bubbling up. He deeply disliked feeling angry (he didn’t exactly have the best experiences with the emotion), but he couldn’t help it. That was low. In his experience, people usually had good intentions. They were more often than not, good, nice people. But every once in a while they weren’t, and Catalina didn’t deserve that.

Varian fiddled with his gloves, “You should tell her. And Lance,” he quickly added, “If, if I told my dad when I was going through that I’m sure...I know he would have done something to stop it, and, and I know your family would do the same for you.”

“It’s so embarrassing though,” Catalina hopped off the kitchen counter and began to anxiously walk around the room, “I know stealing isn’t good, and I’m not proud of it, but I was still the silent striker, you know? And I’m a werewolf for crying out loud! I should be able to handle something like this.”

“I, I think everyone gets t-teased at least once in their life. It’s not something to be ashamed of. And even if it is embarrassing, family are the best people to be embarrassing in front of,” Varian gave her a smile, “I mean my dad has seen me do and say s-some pretty embarrassing things,” Varian awkwardly laughed, “but he never judges me. Out loud, at least.” Varian’s attempt to lighten the mood seemed to work as Catalina giggled.

“Thanks V. I’ll...I’ll tell them tonight.”

“It’s no problem. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more, uh, help.”

Catalina shook her head, a small smile on her face, “You helped a lot. Talking about it really made me feel better and I...I think I’m finally ready to tell Angry and Dad, so uh yeah, thanks.” 

— 

After lunch Catalina helped Varian do the dishes and label some of the packages from earlier. Unfortunately, she didn’t stay much longer since it was getting sorta late, and she didn’t want to worry Dad. It was unusual for her and Angry to be separated for so long, and if she didn’t get back to the treehouse before dinner they might think something happened to her. Varian offered to walk her home, and as much as she would have loved that, she knew it would be dark on his way back, and while she didn’t mind it, he probably wouldn’t enjoy walking alone in the woods at night. So she bid Varian goodbye and went on her merry way. 

Catalina was really happy with how the day turned out. Not only did she get to spend a few hours with her friend, but she finally told someone about what was happening at school. She was pretty proud of herself. Even if making friends at school was harder than she thought, Catalina knew everything would turn out okay. She had a family, a home, and a friend she could confide in. Sure, life had its ups and downs, but she wouldn’t trade a single second.


End file.
